The present invention relates to a computer file system and more particularly to such a file system which provides, to a user, an aggregated directory which can encompass the files in a large number of high capacity storage devices such as CD ROMs.
Currently available optical storage devices provide storage capacities which are immense by standards applicable even a few years ago. The most common optical storage media is a so-called CD ROM, this being an acronym for "compact disk read only memory". In fact, however, the optical compact disks are now being implemented using technologies which permit writing to disk e.g., the so-called worm-drive an acronym for "write once, read many". Electro-optical technology has also made possible, in a compact disk format, a media which can be rewritten many times as well as read essentially indefinitely. Increasingly, these storage devices are being used for archiving because of the huge data capacity they afford. Large libraries of data are also being published in the CD ROM format.
Notwithstanding the large data capacities of individual CD ROMs, increasing use is being made of so-called juke-box type CD ROM drives which can hold a multiplicity of individual disks. Still further, in some applications, users are incorporating multiple juke-boxes to handle very large numbers of such disks.
In such systems, the accessing of a particular file, from the myriad number of files or documents which may be available, is an increasingly daunting task. This task is particularly complicated when there may exist, on different disks, multiple versions of the same document which have the same file name. Typically, such files can be differentiated only by time-stamp data which evidences the time of the last edit. As will be understood, this situation occurs frequently in archiving or data backup situations.
While there have existed systems for handling such duplicative file names, these systems have heretofore involved proprietary operating systems and storage formats and have not provided satisfactorily rapid and facile access to the desired information that a user might desire.
Among the several objects of the present invention may be noted the provision of a computer system which will provide an aggregated directory encompassing files located on a plurality storage devices or media; the provision of such a system which facilitates the addition and/or changing of disks or volumes; the provision of such a system which provides rapid access to directory information; the provision of such a system which is highly reliable and which is of relatively simple and inexpensive construction. Other objects and features will be in part apparent and in part pointed out hereinafter.